NXT FEBRUARY 28TH 2018
Recap of Gargano/Almas to open.
Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Bate
Apparently, the story now is that Bate mentioned Dream’s name in an interview and Dream didn’t like it. Maybe I missed that interview and maybe that’s why it feels like this feud is being revealed to me in stages. Regardless of why they had the match, I’m glad they did, because as I expected it was a fun one. This was a bit of a return to form for Dream, his past couple of matches had been a little disappointing for one reason or another. The size difference between the two was never really a factor and I thought the two meshed well. Crowd were split between the two as well. Bate got the better of Dream with the British style early on and after a bit of control from Dream, we got a good back and forth finish. Dream picked up the win after crotching Bate as he attempted a superplex, before following up with the Purple Rainmaker. I don’t know if this was shady enough of a finish to get a Takeover rematch out of, they certainly didn’t seem to be selling that post match.
Ellering and AOP cut a promo backstage about the Dusty Classic. The combination of the AOP speaking in their native tongue and summing it up with a few words in English works well.
Footage of Gargano signing his termination papers from WWE.com, with Drake apologising to Johnny for making a mistake in the match.
Adam Cole w/Undisputed Era vs. Cezar Bononi
Big pro-Cole reaction here. Cole got on the mic at the start of the match, mentioning that Cezar was the NXT 2017 Future Star Of The Year and asked for a round of applause, before offering him a spot in Undisputed Era. Before Bononi could put the shirt on though, Cole hit him with a cheap shot. If the idea was to make Bononi the face here, it kinda didn’t work, since the crowd wanted him to join. Oh well. Bononi got a brief tease of an upset, before a superkick and his flying knee to the back of the head got the win. Cole’s knee looked way better to the back of the head than it usually does to the front, hopefully someone else noticed that. Undisputed Era posed over Bononi post match.
Hype video for Sane and Baszler.
Street Profits interviewed ‘fans’, who turned out to be each other, about who was going to win the Dusty Classic. They both, surprisingly, went with the Street Profits. They also revealed the bracket here. I’m hoping for TM61/Moustache Mountain as the finals.
Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler
Good match. Not seeing the Mae Young Classic, I don’t know how this compared to the final they had, but I certainly enjoyed this one as a TV main event. Baszler was on offence for much of the match, which is probably for the best. She did okay selling as well, but I think it’s clear that’s not her strong suit. On offence, there’s really no issues. Sane only got a relatively short comeback before she teased going for the elbow off the top. Shayna pulled her off with the Kirifuda Driver though to get the clean win, which she probably needed after two failed attempts at Moon.
Baszler went to the commentators afterwards, telling them she was calling Ember out, she was the coward of the two and if they met again she was either leaving with her title or a limb.
The show closed out with Almas and Zelina coming to the ring for a promo. Zelina called Almas Mr 4-0 and mocked Gargano for losing again, calling it a clean sweep for Andrade. She said she didn’t care about earning the fans respect, they earned money, fame and power and unlike most women, she didn’t feed off her man’s success, she created it. Almas joined in the mocking of Johnny and called him Johnny Jobless, while they called him NXT Champion. As Almas was leaving though, Aleister Black came out and before Black could speak, Killian Dain appeared as well. Black and Dain fought with Almas watching on from the stage, Dain avoiding Black Mass and taking Black out with a crossbody as Andrade left. Crowd were hot for Aleister and, well, less so for Dain.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: An all-around strong show this week. Both opener and main event were good matches, Cole and Bononi was enjoyable for what it was and all of the segments on the show were solid on top.
NXT WEEK: AOP versus TM61 in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, in a rematch of the last Dusty Classic’s final.